Grand Rapids Ranks Near The Top Of The Country For Student Debt

If you attended any of the many private and state colleges in the greater Grand Rapids area, chances are that you've run up substantial debt to pay off that big tuition bill. Here's the good news -- you're not alone.

According to the credit score site WalletHub, Grand Rapids ranks in the top 5 percent of cities with the most student debt in the United States.

In order to determine the cities where residents are saddled with the most unsustainable student-loan debts, WalletHub’s analysts compared the median student-loan balance to the median earnings of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in nearly 2,000 U.S. cities.

They found that in the Grand Rapids metro the median student loan balance is $20,029, while the median earnings of the holders of Bachelor Degrees is $37,130 making the ratio of student debt to median earnings of Bachelor’s Degree holders*equals 53.94%, putting us in the 95th percentile for student debt. The only Michigan cities where it's higher are the college towns of Ann Arbor and Lansing and the Detroit suburbs of Hamtramck, Oak Park and Southfield.

The site offers a student loan calculator to help you sit down with your college age children and figure out what they can afford when it comes to student loans.